Around the BLOCK

Locanda Verde–New York City

Written By: Mary Bloch
-
Dec•
14•11

Locanda Verde has been on the map for quite some time. This charming Italian hot spot in Tribeca is owned by Andrew Carmellini, who just added The Dutch to his resume. Securing a reservation for dinner is no easy task, so rather than eat super early or late, we opted for brunch. Tables started filling slowly at 11:00 am, but by the time we left at 12:30, the place was packed and people were hanging out on the sidewalk waiting for people like us to abandon our table. To the waiter’s credit, we were never rushed as I’ve heard often happens in New York City restaurants. (In Kansas City would you ever be offered a dessert menu only be told by your server a few minutes later that you couldn’t order dessert because they needed to turn the table? True story…..)

No such issue at Locanda Verde as we took our time settling in and perusing the menu, which had so many appealing options that we couldn’t decide what to order.

At Locanda Verde I only took two photos before I was informed by management that they don’t allow diners to take pictures. That must be a new policy because there are photos of their dishes all over the Internet which, in fact, helped me decide what to order.

We started with Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast for the table, though we were tempted by the pastries that were beautifully displayed on a nearby counter. The server also brought some very soft and spongy focaccia which we had no trouble devouring.

Moving on, I ordered shrimp and grits with a poached egg, and it was as luscious as the server described. Other dishes at the table included a soft scrambled egg crostini with leeks and mushrooms, wood-fired baked eggs with corona beans, mozzarella and black Tuscan kale, and lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberries and Meyer lemon curd. Not a dud in the group. In fact, everyone was happy and sated when we left, and I suspect a return visit is in our future. It would be hard for me not to repeat the same meal, but the dinner menu looks so amazing, I might try a little harder to score a night-time reservation.